Film World: French Film Special

Film World
French Film
Special
Plus a beginner’s guide
to french movies
el
Am
French cinema and the work
of Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet
ie
This weeks reviews: Monsieur
Hulot’s Holiday and La Belle Et
La Bete
in Film… Film in Detail… Films About… Films From… Film By You… People in Film… Film in D
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Film World
1
Note from the Editor
Hello and welcome to FILMCLUB’s Film World magazine!
Film World is the only film magazine in Britain made exclusively
for 5 - 18 year olds. Every issue we bring you in-depth film
features, puzzles and reviews, plus tons and tons of film
recommendations to expand your viewing horizons. If you like
movies, you’ll love Film World.
We love hearing your suggestions on what you’d like to see
in Film World magazine. Please email your comments to
[email protected] and include ‘Film World’ in the subject line.
Contents
Films From
People in Films
A Beginner’s Guide ...... 2
Jean-Pierre Jeunet ....... 5
Films About
Films By You
Paris ............................. 3
Reviews ............................. 6
Films in Detail
Fun Fun Fun
Pierrot le Fou.................. 4
Puzzles & Trivia .............. 7
www.filmclub.org > Film World
about
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Films From
2
A Beginner’s Guide To
French Movies
There could hardly be a better introduction to French movies
than Jules et Jim, a classic from the early 1960s. But once
you’ve started exploring, be careful - there may be no way of
stopping!
Because the history of the movies in France is so long and so
varied it could almost be the history of movies themselves.
And in a way, it is. After all, one of the men responsible for
making cinema the amazing art form it is today was George
Méliès, a former magician from Paris who in the 1900s made
some of the earliest and most ambitious movies, including the
still incredible Voyage To The Moon.
A Voyage To The Moon
Belleville Rendez-Vous
Then, as the movies grew in popularity, France kept producing
many of the greatest. During the 1920s and 30s, the classics
kept coming movies as different as the comedy Boudu Saved
From Drowning, and the incredible country house drama La
Regle de Jeu (The Rules of the Game) .
Of course, World War II and the years of Nazi occupation
cast a shadow over French movies. But even then, filmmakers
found a way to reflect reality, producing movies like the dark
and unsettling Le Corbeau.
But the golden age of French cinema lay ahead, as in the
1950s and 1960s, the “new wave” came to the fore. Led
by young filmmakers like Jean-Luc Godard (Breathless ,
Alphaville) and Françoise Truffaut, director of Jules et Jim , the
new wave films transformed the way stories were told on film,
and its influence is still felt today.
Not that the story of French cinema ended there. In recent
years the tradition has been as strong as ever with dazzling
animations like Belleville Rendez-Vous, hard-hitting dramas
such as La Haine, and brilliant crowd-pleasers like Amelie. And
with the school-set The Class winning the biggest prize at the
2008 Cannes Festival, it seems the history of French movies is
still very much being written…
Alphaville
Boudu Saved From Drowning
FILMCLUB 5
A Voyage To The Moon
(1902,PG)
Alphaville (1965, PG)
Jules Et Jim (1962, PG)
Le Corbeau (1943, PG)
Mesrine Parts 1 and 2
(2009, 15)
www.filmclub.org > Film World > Films From > A Beginner’s Guide To French Movies
Films About
3
Paris
There are two sides to every city, and Paris is no different. The
French capital has enjoyed a long and illustrious association
with movies, some of which romanticise and idealise the city,
others which show a more brutal underbelly that most tourists
will never see. You can probably see that contrast at work
most dramatically in The 400 Blows, director Francois Truffaut’s
semi-autobiographical masterpiece of 1959, and Jean-Pierre
Jeunet’s much-loved Amelie.
Truffaut sets out his stall from the opening shot, in which we
see a street-level view of Paris with the Eiffel Tower a blur in
the distance, obscured by buildings and real life. Antoine
Doinel, 13, is trapped by his life; his mother isn’t interested in
him and education fails to engage him (he’s eventually sent
to reform school). He bunks off school and, when he can, goes
to the cinema. By the end, when he ends up at the coast, we
wonder if he has anywhere left to go.
If Truffaut’s world view is powerful but bleak then Amelie
offers a sugar-coated taste of Paris. This whimsical 2001
film is drenched in colour and nostalgia. Amelie lives in the
fashionable area of Montematre and works in a cafe. As
she tries to make sense of life, love and heartache, the city
is shown in unashamed glory, with stunning shots of the
Cathedral of Notre Dame and the Basilica Sacre Couer.
Paris has also been a backdrop for films about urban terror
- La Haine, about an Arab kid and a young Jewish skinhead
in the Paris projects, is one of the sharpest films ever made
about troubled teen life - and underground netherworlds (Luc
Besson’s Subway is a stylish tale about a thief hiding out in the
Parisian Metro). There’s another thief-on-the-run in A Bout de
Souffle, Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 debut feature film - this time
it’s Jean-Paul Belmondo who steals a car in the south of France
and then hides out in his girlfriend’s flat in Paris.
Other iconic views of Paris are to be found in the fabulous
flamboyant period piece Les Enfants du Paradis and the
homeless fairytale Les Amants du Pont-Neuf. A pefect
introduction to the city, however, is to be found in Paris Vu Par.
A pleasing package of six ‘new wave’ directors, it was first
released in 1965 and includes short films by Godard, Claude
Charbrol and Eric Rohmer. It’s a series of cinematic love letters
to Paris and it’s perfect both for those familiar with the city’s
celluloid history and for absolute beginners.
La Haine
Subway
Les Amants Du Pont Neuf
The 400 Blows
FILMCLUB 5
A Bout de Souffle
(1959, PG)
La Haine (1995, 15)
Les Amants Du Pont Neuf
(1991, 15)
Subway (1985, 15)
The 400 Blows (1959, PG)
www.filmclub.org > Film World > Films About > Paris
Films In Detail
4
Pierrot le Fou
The French film-maker Jean-Luc Godard is one of the most
influential directors in the history of cinema. But his films have
a reputation for being ‘difficult’ - they disregard the rules of
storytelling, combine documentary-style footage with flights of
fancy and surrealism, they’re politically confrontational, and
they make lengthy references to films and novels, many of
which we won’t be familiar with.
His 1965 film Pierrot le Fou does all these things. It is bracingly
experimental, and it will challenge your idea of what a movie
is and should be. But stay with it. Because Pierrot le Fou is one
of the great films of the past 50 years, and it has a style that is
infectious and a melancholy view of romantic relationships that
will leave only the hardest of folk untouched.
The story is simple enough. Married to a rich Italian, TV executive
Ferdinand (Jean-Paul Belmondo) runs off with former lover
Marianne (Anna Karina), and two hit the road for the South of
France, where they plan to live out a life of romantic happyever-after. But Marianne may also have committed a murder,
and once in the South, she is tracked down by her criminal
associates. All the while, the relationship between Ferdinand
and Marianne is breaking down, and it seems their time
together is doomed to end badly.
Godard tells this straightforward story with incredible daring.
A former movie critic, he directs a little like a DJ mixing music,
sampling existing movies to form something entirely new. Instead
of acting ‘naturally’, Belmondo and Karina will, for instance,
re-enact a Laurel and Hardy routine when they rob a garage, a
scene as charming as it is ridiculous. Other movies are ‘quoted’, as
are art history, comic-strips, and political events, while characters
will break into song or directly address the audience. Meanwhile
dialogue will be totally made up of advertising slogans. It’s a
magpie approach that encourages us to think about the makebelieve at the heart of all films, even the most ‘realistic’ ones. And
yet there’s nothing preachy about Pierrot le Fou. Godard and
his cast improvised much of the later scenes, and this sense of
spontaneity is evident in the film’s giddy, playful fun.
But for all its wit and sophistication, it is also pierced with sorrow
for Ferdinand and Marianne’s failing love (Karina, incidentally,
was Godard’s lover at the time, and they were in the middle of
breaking up). The movie’s dazzling and hip style will stimulate
your brain, but the film packs an emotional punch too.
The American director Sam Fuller, who Godard greatly admired,
makes a famous cameo early on in the movie. Asked to explain
what cinema is, he comes up with a definition that applies to
Pierrot le Fou: “It’s love, hate, action, violence, death. In one
word - emotions.”
www.filmclub.org > Film World > Film In Detail > Pierrot le Fou
Pierrot le Fou
A Bout de Souffle
A Band A Part
Jules et Jim
FILMCLUB 5
A Bout de Souffle
(1959, PG)
Alphaville (1965, PG)
Bande A Part (1964, PG)
Jules Et Jim (1962, PG)
Amelie (2001, 15)
People In Films
5
Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Some directors bring a personal touch to every film they work on
so that you can quickly spot when a movie is one of theirs. The
French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet is one such talent, known for
his instantly recognisable creations full of visual flights of fancy,
strange and wonderful characters and machines, and stories
packed with drama, comedy and plenty of twists and turns a
movie-maker whose sheer imagination means his films are perfect
for older children exploring what cinema can make possible.
When he first started making movies, Jeunet joined forces with
a designer and comic book artist called Marc Caro. Working
together (unusually, because most directors work on films alone),
the two made a pair of FILMCLUB’s favourite movies: the brilliant
black comedy Delicatessen, and the dazzling off-beat fairytale
The City of Lost Children. After a brief spell in Hollywood, the duo
returned and made one of the best-loved foreign-language films
of all time, Amelie, before going their separate ways.
Now striking out on his own, Jeunet’s next film was the World War I
drama A Very Long Engagement, which reunited him with Amelie
star Audrey Tatou; in fact, one of Jeunet’s hallmarks is often working
with the same team of actors and crew members. For instance,
the distinctive actor Dominique Pinon first starred in Delicatessen
and has since appeared in every one of Jenuet’s movies.
Another great Jeunet film that we highly recommend,
meanwhile, is Micmacs the story of Bazil, a video shop assistant
whose life is first ruined and then transformed for the better
when a stray bullet is lodged in his head after a crime takes
place. Packed full of Jeunet’s trademark visual flourishes
and brilliant comedy set-pieces (not to mention, of course,
Dominique Pinon), it’s a movie we think is perfect for secondary
Film Clubs with a taste for adventure and imagination.
Delicatessen
The City of Lost Children
Micmacs
A Very Long Engagement
FILMCLUB 5
A Very Long Engagement
(2004, 15)
Amelie (2001, 15)
Delicatessen (1991, 15)
Micmacs (2010, 12)
The City of Lost Children
(1995, 15)
www.filmclub.org > Film World > People In Films > Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Films By You
Amelie
6
(2001, 15)
by Josie, 16
The film was definitely amusing in it’s style and genre, the mixture
between naturalism and realism along with some somewhat
supernatural and unrealistic events made the film a real treat to
watch seeing as how in some certain parts it was difficult to tell
what was real and what wasn’t. The mixture of complex and
unique characters as well as their often peculiar pasts added
greatly to the humor, as in some places it was just totally ridiculous
and over-the-top that it was impossible to not laugh. Audrey Tautou
was absolutely impeccable in her acting and gave a real charm
to the role. Adding comedy in a very childlike and naive manner
whilst at the same time showing off that she is in fact very intelligent
given how everything slots together neatly at the end.
La Belle Et La Bete
Amelie
(1959, PG)
by Sajidah, 11
This film is a french version of beauty and the beast. It is a very
classical film, even though it was in black and white, the film was
quite interesting. The music made the scenes more dramatic
and the characters were amazing. My favourite was the main
character Beauty, she is the the daughter of a poor man who
has to work for her two mean sisters, Beauty also has a brother,
Adelaide and his friend Avenant.I thought the story was great too,
when her father sets of to buy gifts for his three daughters and
ends up in the Beast’s castle. But he’s in trouble as the Beast tells
him to sacrifice one of his daughters’ lives to save his own but he
won’t let that happen. Beauty can’t bare to see her father dead,
that’s why she risks her life so her father can live. But little does
Beauty know that after meeting the beast, her life will change
completely. This film was like no other and I hope there will more
just like this one.
www.filmclub.org > Film World > Films By You
La Belle Et La Bete
Fun Fun Fun
7
Blurred vision...
Sliding faces...
Did you know...
Can you name the title and
year of our out of focus film?
Can you unscramble our slide
puzzle and name the film and
character?
In Amelie, Audrey Tautou didn’t
know how to skip stones, these scenes
were made with special effects.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Roll call...
Can you name all 6 of the actors?
Want to check your answers?
You can find them all at http://www.filmclub.org/blog/details/375/quiz and while
you’re online, why not log in to discover more film news, reviews and interviews…
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